1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a refrigerator, and more particularly, to an air curtain generator for generating air curtain in a refrigerant compartment of a refrigerator.
2. Prior Art
An air curtain generator is a device which blows cool air generated by an evaporator of a refrigerator into a refrigerant or freezing compartment to generate an air curtain in the refrigerant or freezing compartment.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,765,388, (issued to Yong-Deok Jeon on Jul. 16, 1998) discloses a refrigerator with air curtain generating device for selectively generating an air curtain in a freezing compartment or a refrigerant compartment when a freezing compartment door or a fresh food compartment door is opened.
FIG. 1 shows a conventional air curtain generator 10 of a refrigerator by using an alternating current(AC) air curtain fan. The air curtain generator 10 of a refrigerator 10 includes a microcomputer 102, a driver 104, a relay 106, an AC power source 108, and an AC air curtain fan 110. The microcomputer 102 senses open and closes states of a refrigerant compartment door and generates a sensing result signal according to the sensing result. The sensing result signal from the microcomputer 102 is applied to the driver 104. The driver 104 outputs a relay on/off signal in response to the sensing result signal from the microcomputer 102. The relay 106 turns on or off in response to the relay on/off signal from the driver 104. The AC power source 110 supplies an AC driving current to the AC air curtain fan 110. When the relay 106 is in a turn-on state, the AC air curtain fan 110 rotates and generates and provides an air curtain into a refrigerant compartment. When a refrigerant compartment door is opened, in order to prevent cool air from flowing an outside or to prevent external air from flowing inside of the refrigerator, the AC air curtain fan 110 disposed at a rear side of the refrigerant compartment operates to generate and provide an air curtain into a refrigerant compartment.
Since a conventional air curtain generator for a refrigerator by using an AC air curtain fan has a high noise level, high power consumption, and low efficiency, performance of air curtain operation declines.